Daily Times

Marvi Malik made headlines as Pakistan’s first trans newsreader back in 2018 a month after the Senate voted to support a bill protecting transgender rights, signalling hope for a new, bigotry-free future in television. However, her reverie was abruptly broken when two assailants opened fire on her as she was leaving a pharmacy yesterday. Heteropatriarchal Pakistan has a lot of trouble accommodating space for people whose gender expression differs from the male/female binary.

Many trans activists have been targeted in the past simply for saying what’s on their minds. Two years ago, Gul Panra was shot by an unidentified gunman in Peshawar. A few years before that, Alisha Imran, a 23-year-old trans activist was shot seven times by a gang that extorts money from trans people. She was rushed to the hospital but negotiations over whether she should be taken to the men’s or woman’s ward cost Alisha her life.

Despite the relatively progressive laws for transgender people, there remains a huge gap between policy and protection. Advances in trans rights have faced serious resistance from hardline religious elements in the country. Trans people continue to face harassment, mistreatment and social exclusion from all spheres of society. Trans people are often

disowned by their own families and typically live together in communities. There is strength in numbers, especially when the threats to your life are so severe and existential.

Exclusion from education means that 42% of the trans community is illiterate, greatly limiting employment opportunities. Shunned by mainstream society, trans people in Pakistan are often relegated to sex work or forced to beg to make ends meet. The fortunate few who do find employment, such as Marvi, are met with an endless barrage of death threats at every juncture. The 2018 bill stipulated the establishment of government-run protection centres for trans people but only one such centre exists so far. Laws can only go so far with a community that is so marginalised and expects to be rejected by society. Pakistan has no issue posing as a defender of trans rights but when it comes to implementation, we have fallen horribly short of what is required. *